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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27858286">christmas in the city.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroallerdyce/pseuds/pyroallerdyce'>pyroallerdyce</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>a dyad in the force (aka all my ben/rey fics) [165]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Cold, Cold Weather, Conversations, Cupcakes, December writing challenge, F/M, First Meetings, Flash Forward, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, Hot Chocolate, Inspired by Music, Kissing, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Relationship(s), Short One Shot, Snow, Tumblr Prompt, Winter, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:09:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,842</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27858286</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroallerdyce/pseuds/pyroallerdyce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben headed for the front of the store once he decided that he had enough stuff that he could cook into his Christmas Day meal, checked himself out at one of the self-checkouts, grabbed his bags, and headed out into the snow.  He was almost to his car when he spotted Rey not that far ahead of him, struggling with several bags, and he remembered her saying that she had walked there.  </p><p>He couldn’t let her walk home.</p><p>or:  Ben meets Rey in a grocery store, offers to give her a ride home, and they discover they live on the same floor in the same building.  They find out they have other things in common too, and maybe there is a future between the two of them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>a dyad in the force (aka all my ben/rey fics) [165]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1601755</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>December Writing Challenge - 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>christmas in the city.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>december writing challenge day 3.  I quite like this one.</p><p>and as always, if you like what you read and you want to see more, please let me know via a comment or kudos or bookmark so that I know I'm not writing into a void.  enjoy!</p><p>December 3 Prompt: “Please, please, please let me have this box of hot chocolate. I’m sick and home alone so I had to walk here in fifteen-degree weather, and this is the last in the store.  Please.  I just want to drink hot chocolate and watch <i>The Polar Express</i> and sleep.” (munchkinpotterhead on Tumblr)<br/>Title Song: Christmas in the City by Matt Wertz</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ben really needed to learn to be better prepared for snowstorms.  Well, snowstorms and Christmas, because the combination of the two had made it next to impossible to find the things that he was looking for at the store.  He’d managed to find a few of the things on his list, but he could not find the hot chocolate to save his life, and if there was one thing that he needed to make Christmas feel somewhat close to what Christmas had felt like when he was a kid, it was hot chocolate.</p><p>No, he was not going down that train of thought.  The fact that he missed his parents did not solve the gulf of issues that separated them, and thinking about them wasn’t going to change the fact that he was never going to speak to them again.</p><p>Cursing himself for even thinking about them, he turned down another aisle just in time to see a woman bend down and take a box off the shelf.  “Excuse me,” he said.  “Is that hot chocolate?”</p><p>The woman turned around and Ben was struck by her beauty.  But before he could say anything else, she spoke.  “Please, please, please let me have this box of hot chocolate.  I’m sick and home alone so I had to walk here in fifteen-degree weather, and this is the last in the store.  Please.  I just want to drink hot chocolate and watch <i>The Polar Express</i> and sleep.”</p><p>“I’m not trying to take it from you, so relax,” Ben said, walking up to her.  “I was just questioning if that was hot chocolate.  If that’s the last box, then of course, you have it.  You got to it first.”</p><p>“Oh thank God,” she said, taking a deep breath.  “Sorry, sir.  I just...I need this today.”</p><p>“Ben,” he said.  “No one calls me sir.”</p><p>The woman smiled.  “Well, thank you, Ben.  I’m Rey.”</p><p>Ben smiled back.  “Nice to meet you, Rey.”</p><p>He turned towards the shelf and surveyed his options, found powdered apple cider mix that you just added water to, and selected it.  “I hope you start feeling better soon,” he said, putting the box in his basket.  “And Happy Holidays.”</p><p>“Same to you, Ben,” Rey said, and they went their separate ways.</p><p>Thoughts of his parents popped into his head again as he walked through the store, and Ben decided that he needed to finish shopping so he could get home and get drunk.  Fuck them.  Fuck them so much for ruining his day even now.  It had been nearly a decade.  Surely by now, just the thought of them shouldn’t affect him so much.  </p><p>Ben headed for the front of the store once he decided that he had enough stuff that he could cook into his Christmas Day meal, checked himself out at one of the self-checkouts, grabbed his bags, and headed out into the snow.  He was almost to his car when he spotted Rey not that far ahead of him, struggling with several bags, and he remembered her saying that she had walked there.  </p><p>He couldn’t let her walk home.</p><p>“Rey!” he called out, and she turned around at the sound of his voice.  “Do you want a ride home?”</p><p>“Fuck yes,” Rey said, walking towards him.  “Thank you so much, Ben.  Like, thank you.”</p><p>“Of course,” Ben said, heading to his car and opening up the trunk.  “I’ll put my stuff back here, but you can put yours in the backseat so we keep them separate.”</p><p>“Perfect.”</p><p>Rey opened the backseat and placed her bags there as Ben finished putting his stuff in the trunk.  They got into the car and Ben started it, rubbing his gloveless hands together to try and warm them up.  “Forgot to bring my gloves,” he explained.  “Really stupid of me.”</p><p>“Not as stupid as walking here in the middle of this storm,” Rey said, reaching for her seatbelt.  “I cannot thank you enough, Ben.  I really can’t.”</p><p>“It’s really not a problem,” Ben said.  “We’ll let the car warm up a bit and then we’ll go.”</p><p>Rey nodded.  “At least you have a car.  I can’t afford one.”</p><p>“The car was a graduation present from my,” Ben said, cutting himself off immediately.  “Nevermind.”</p><p>Rey looked over at him.  “Parents?”</p><p>Ben sighed heavily.  “Yeah.”</p><p>“That sigh tells me that you guys aren’t necessarily getting along.  Mine and I aren’t either.”</p><p>“Oh yeah?” Ben asked, looking at the engine temperature.  “How long?”</p><p>“Almost five years,” Rey said, leaning her head back against the seat.  “How long for you?”</p><p>“A decade,” Ben said, shaking his head.  “They reach out every once and a while but there’s just way too much shit that was said for me to ever want to respond.”</p><p>“Same.  Sometimes I have dreams that things can be repaired, but I know better than that.  My father is too damn set in his ways to ever change and my mother will always go along with what my father thinks.”</p><p>“I miss them this time of year though,” Ben sighed.  “And I wish I didn’t.”</p><p>“I miss mine too,” Rey said wistfully.  “Maybe someday I won’t.”</p><p>“Do you live alone?  Because I do and that definitely doesn’t help this time of year.” Ben looked at the engine temperature again.  “Alright, I think it’s warm enough to drive.  You can see if there’s any heat yet.  Should be some.”</p><p>“Great,” Rey said, reaching for the controls.  “And no, I don’t live alone.  I live with my friends Finn and Rose.  They usually help me through this time of year, but they decided to go to Rose’s parents in Chicago this Christmas and so I’m all alone.”</p><p>Ben pulled the car out of the space and headed towards the parking lot’s exit.  He was four blocks down the street, talking idly with Rey about how she’d ended up in New York, when he realized that he was headed towards his place and had no idea where she lived.  “Where do you live?  I suppose that should have been my first question.” </p><p>“Don’t worry, you’re headed in the right direction.”  Rey rattled off an address and Ben laughed.  “What?”</p><p>“We live in the same building,” Ben said, and Rey laughed as well.  </p><p>“Seriously?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Ben said.  “What floor?”</p><p>“Twelfth,” Rey said, and Ben laughed again.  “What?”</p><p>“Me too,” Ben said, smiling at her.  </p><p>“You’re kidding me!  What number?”</p><p>“Six.  You?”</p><p>“Thirteen.  So we’re on opposite ends of the floor.”</p><p>“That explains how I’ve never noticed you before,” Ben said before turning his attention back to the road.</p><p>“That and the fact that I literally moved in with Finn and Rose about two weeks ago,” Rey said.  “But as I said, they’re in Chicago, so it’s just me until after New Year’s.”</p><p>“You should come over for Christmas then,” Ben said without thinking.  “I mean, I’ll be alone too.”</p><p>Rey sat there for a moment before turning to Ben with a smile.  “That sounds great, Ben.  But only if I feel better, okay?”</p><p>“Of course,” Ben said.  “If you’re not feeling up to it, that’s fine.  I’ll bring you some food so you don’t have to cook.”</p><p>“That’s sweet of you,” Rey said as Ben pulled into the building’s underground parking.  “I am really curious about something.”</p><p>“And what is that?”</p><p>“What do you do to make enough money to live in this building by yourself?  There’s no way I could do that.  But you don’t have to answer that incredibly invasive question if you don’t want to.”</p><p>Ben parked the car and they got out, and it wasn’t until they were in the elevator that he spoke.  “I own a couple of successful bakeries.”</p><p>Rey looked over at him.  “Seriously?”</p><p>“Seriously,” Ben said.  “I’ll have to bring you some goodies.  I’ve got a ton of stuff baked.”</p><p>“I like you even more now,” Rey said.  “Tell me more about these bakeries.”</p><p>Ben started talking about the three Rebellion Bakery locations in the city, and Rey wanted to freak out because Rebellion cupcakes were her favorite thing in the world, and that made Ben laugh.  “I was going to make some this afternoon, so I’ll bring you some later.”</p><p>“You’re the best, I hope you know that.”  Rey sighed as the elevator slowed.  “Thank you so much for the ride home, Ben.  I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.”</p><p>“It was no problem,” he said as they walked out of the elevator.  “And besides, I have a new friend now.”</p><p>Rey smiled at him.  “Yeah, and so do I.”</p><p>“Number thirteen, right?”</p><p>“Number thirteen,” Rey confirmed.  </p><p>“Then I’ll bring you your goodies later this afternoon.”</p><p>“Perfect.  I’m going to go drink hot chocolate and watch <i>The Polar Express</i>.”</p><p>“Enjoy that and get some rest.”</p><p>“I will.”</p><p>They parted ways and went to their respective apartments.  Rey put her stuff away, made some hot chocolate, buried herself underneath blankets, and started watching <i>The Polar Express.</i>  Ben put his stuff away, checked the runtime of <i>The Polar Express</i>, went into the kitchen, and started making cupcakes.  By the time that the movie was over, Rey was fully warmed up and feeling a little better, and Ben was ready to knock at her door with cupcakes, cookies, and more.</p><p>So, that’s what he did.</p><p>Rey opened the door, invited Ben in, and then asked him if he wanted to stay to have a cupcake and watch <i>The Polar Express</i>.  Ben just smiled and said yes.</p><p>
  <b>one year later……</b>
</p><p>“Ben, come on!” Rey exclaimed, walking into their living room.  “I’ve got the cupcakes already!”</p><p>“Be there in a minute, darling!”</p><p>“Well, make it a quick minute, will you?  We only have a certain amount of time to watch <i>The Polar Express</i> before we have to leave!”</p><p>Rey sat down on the sofa and set the plate down on the table, reaching for the blanket.  Ben walked into the room a moment later wearing a Christmas sweater and Rey laughed.  “I didn’t know you had that.”</p><p>“It’s old,” Ben said, sitting down.  “I’m honestly surprised it still fits.  But, wearing it seemed fitting for where we’re going tonight.”</p><p>“Nervous?”</p><p>“For Christmas with my family?  Fuck yes.”</p><p>Rey leaned over and kissed him.  “It’ll be alright.  I’ll help you through it.”</p><p>“I know,” Ben said, tangling their fingers together.  “Mama can’t wait to meet you.”</p><p>“Well, my mum can’t wait to meet you either,” Rey said.  “So we’re going to have to go to London soon.”</p><p>Ben smiled, thinking about the surprise trip to London for New Year’s that he had planned.  “Yeah.  Soon as possible.”</p><p>“Alright, movie time.”</p><p>They snuggled up together and Rey turned on the movie as Ben reached for a cupcake.  It had been a crazy year since they’d met, a whirlwind really, but it was the best kind of whirlwind.  And when Rey reached for a cupcake of her own, the lights of their Christmas tree reflected on the diamond on her ring finger, and it made Ben smile.</p>
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